Release convention centre figures now: Liberals
Posted Oct 1, 2010 05:50:30 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter is promising to officially release details of the bid for a new convention centre in downtown Halifax next week.
But the Liberals say there’s too many people making up their minds about the project based only on speculation – and the government needs to release the facts immediately.
Liberal caucus chair Kelly Regan says the the government has lacked transparency in dealing with the proposal, which has been on their desks since July.
She says the leak by MLA Howard Epstein earlier this week suggesting the city and province would each have to pony up $57 million has further confused the debate.
“We just don’t know how much it’s going to cost,” she said. “We have heard wildly divergent estimates. We’ve heard from $40 million to $160 million. How can you possibly make a decision without that good information?”
Dexter says the government is being as transparent as possible under the circumstances.
“Here we are now saying that we will, before any decision is made, release the bid details,” he said. “I would hope that Nova Scotians would see this as the model of transparency.”
Regan is also upset that although the entire NDP caucus has been briefed on the proposal, the Liberal request for a similar briefing was rejected.
“If they’re not bound by cabinet confidentiality, we should have access to that information as well,” she said.
In a release, Regan says she received a letter from senior department officials indicating that they “were not in a position to share this information at this point” and didn’t have authorization to make the presentation to other caucuses.
